Sunday, August 19, 2018

Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes Paperback – November 15, 2014 by Dan Ouellette (KMW Studio)




This is simply the finest book on a bass player's life and career that I have ever read, edging out George Duvivier's book slightly since he did not live to see it published and was not as detailed as this one is. This one has a lot of Ron's comments and observations.It covers all of Carter's career from his high school, college and professional endeavors and in great details, many of which will be new to even the most avid Carter fan. There is absolutely no question that Carter is far and away the most recorded person in the history of planet earth in ANY genre of music and he belongs in the Guiness Book of Records for this. He has amassed over 3000 recordings to date and guess what? He is still at it at the age of 76 and going very strong. Any luminary that was around when he was he played with: We all know his time with Miles Davis but he also played with people like: Kenny Burrell,Bobby Timmons, Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie, Don Cherry, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Sonny Clark, Dexter Gordon, Thelonious Monk,Oscar Peterson, Booker Ervin, John Coltrane, Elvin Jones, Alice Coltrane, Benny Golson,Jo Jones,Phil Woods, Joe Henderson, Andrew Hill, Harumi Kaneko, Red Garland, Tommy Flanagan, Hank Jones, Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Chico Hamilton, Oliver Nelson, George Duvivier, King Curtis,Wayne Shorter, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Philly Joe Jones, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, Art Blakey, Kenny Dorham, Lockjaw Davis, Johnny Griffin, Shirley Scott,Blue Mitchell, Wynton Kelly, Milt Jackson, Hank Crawford, Esther Phillips,Hank Jones,Houston Person, Joey DeFransesco, Helen Merrill and this is just a good month for him. The book details his experiences with the people he played with, the music structures, his issues with being recognized, his cello work early on and the author really probes into his musical genius and the book is a very pleasant read. I most highly recommend it to any person who wants to look into the life of a master musician like Ron is. I have had the pleasure of meeting him 3 or 4 times and he is always so gracious to me and signs my records and Downbeat magazines, takes the time to talk to me and makes me feel like he really appreciates me buying his music. I own over 800 of his recordings, which is of course, just a drop in the bucket of his total output but I am trying to get as many as I can his work is more amazing that you can realize.

The book really details some new items to me like his work with Monk in 1962 and having to ride to Philly from NYC after school 5 days a week with the Baroness's Rolls Royce, having almost come to blows with Pianist Harold Mabern over a disagreement of the way some music should be played and subbing for Ray Brown in the Oscar Peterson trio while he went to school in Eastman in Rochester and what happened afterwards (get the book to see what it was) among other tidbits. Most fascinating is his ongoing dealings with Christian McBride, again the book details how they got along and what Christian was able to pick up from him while learning to be the great bassist he obviously is now. In short, even though it is expensive and a bit hard to find, get this book right away if you have even a remote interest in jazz, it is fantastic. I am lucky enough to have 2 autographed copies of the book the first edition and the second one he brushed up and put out himself, I will treasure these forever.

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